Hello,
my name is Katarina and I'm a Latin student from Germany.
While preparing for a German-Latin translation test, which is immensly important, I found this great website.
I hope my English is okay ))).

Well, I have a question, maybe someone can help me. There are no good textbooks in German for my level, so I downloaded Latin Composition by Benett. Alas, I found no key .
Maybe someone has the key or knows, where I could get it?

Thank you! I do understand written and spoken English well, but I do not communicate in this language, so there are some problems.Do you speak German because you are German, or as a foreign language?

2Amadeus

May I ask, what is your level?

I would say, my level is Caesar (translated into Latin). Not Cicero or Livius , if you know what I mean (but someday it surely be better!).
My problem is the German-Latin translation, so I need lots of exercises for different grammatical subjects with keys!
There are some good German books, indeed, e.g. "Menge", but that's too high for me. I need something easier, and in the first part of "Latin Composition" by Benett there are only Caesar texts and many exempla are taken from Caesar. So that's exactly the thing I have been searching for, BUT the great minus is, that I did not found any key

I too am from Germany and I have similar problems with communicating in English. Understanding English and writing stuff for school is no problem at all, but when it comes to writing about every day stuff, I tend to think too much about what I want to say and end up confused Maybe it's the same with you.
If you don't mind, I would like to know more about your Latin studies at university. What is it like? Do you translate a lot from German into Latin? (If the other users think that this is too much off-topic, we can also talk via PM if you like:))

2Apollimagine
I risk to offtop, for it also maybe interesting for others.
Well... Latinstudies... hard to describe. It ist really a special subject, you know, and the people are very special, too. My university ist Erlangen, and we do have profs , well, they can be not so nice . That is the thing about latinists, most of them are hardliners .
Studying Latin is working hard although knowing all the time, that you will never actually be in command of this language. No one can. But we can try at least.
For me it is also the beauty of the language, which I feel more, the more I know about it. I love to write in Latin, and I love it, to see how beatyful the sentences can be. It is something of artistic pleasure, I think.
That's the philosophy of the whole thing. The praxis is learning everyday, reading, translating, thinking about it all. I can't say, that anything about Latin itsself is dull, because I love it, BUT you have to learn Greek for studying Latin, and argh, Greek is not everone's cup of tea . You have to do things, which you do not like, and I always say to me: I do it for Latin! And the exams are hard, too, you know. Very high standards. Very many students, who do not pass. The pressure is high, now with the StudiengebÃ¼hren (in Germany you have now to pay 592 Euro every semester) it becomes higher.
So... that's it. You can ask per PM, if you want and then we can write German, which is surely something easier for us both Ciao

Katarina wrote: Studying Latin is working hard although knowing all the time, that you will never actually be in command of this language. No one can. But we can try at least.

The pressure is high, now with the StudiengebÃ¼hren (in Germany you have now to pay 592 Euro every semester) it becomes higher.

1) Hello! Although not german, I somehow can't resist a bit of rejoicing when other germanic people join this board! Oh well, maybe it's just because I'm such a 'germanophile'

2) I know that some people (on this forum) with very firm grasp of writing Latin would disagree with you on the first point that I quote. And although it's too late for me to learn Latin by the nature method, I too am sure that everyone can learn Latin and use it as well as any other foreign language - not perfect (as seen in any post by us non-English speakers) but well enough to make oneself understood.

3) Why, why, why is university studies no longer free of charge in Germany? I haven't heard about this at all, even though I have examined the possibility of studying somewhere in Germany at some point of time.

2timeodanaos
About not being able to "know" Latin - this is my personal opinion. The thing is, that Latin is not spoken any more. We do not have any native speakers, from whom we can learn the correct pronounciation, for examle.
Written Latin maybe very correct and very Ciceronian, but every not-native Latin writer has all the common problems like in every other foreign language too PLUS the problem - at least for me it is one - that Classical Latin is something very constructed, for my feeling, and the schoolgrammar show us rigidity and logic of Latin, which, in my opinion never have could existed.
Because it was a living language and what we learn is just a shadow of that greatness.
There is some flow of the language, if it's used by people, and we are not allowed to be part of that flow, we just follow the grammar rules and construct correct sentences - which is hard enough - but in my opinion that is not about being in command of a language, it's about understanding the structure of it.
So long =)))) .

Why do we pay StudiengebÃ¼hren? I do not know. But it is hard to study and to work. It's getting harder. I do not like it .

bedwere wrote:Unfortunately Latin is rarely taught as a living language, that's why it becomes so difficult.

I completely agree. If Latin was taught the way any other modern language is taught, people would not think of Latin as a language one thousand times more difficult than for example English or French (and Latin lessons at school would be much more interesting )
There actually is a school that teaches "latin vivant": Schola Nova in Belgium. I do not intend to become a teacher after school, but if I had the chance to work at this school... who knows?

If Latin was taught the way any other modern language is taught, people would not think of Latin as a language one thousand times more difficult than for example English or French (and Latin lessons at school would be much more interesting Sad)

I think the way how modern languages are taught is horrible. Look at that books with a lot of pictures and few grammar exercises. Well, that can't be the right way.
Most German pupil have been learning English in Gymnasium for nine years and look, what the result ist. Some of us can't even read English books or watch English movies.
I read English literature regulary, and try to watch to movies in English, but my spoken and written English .
I look at this modern Latin books, with many pictures in them and less grammar, and I am not happy about that .
Look for example at maths books! There are plenty of exercises and sometimes even keys. Nobody says, let us teach maths with more fun and less maths, because, well every learning is somehow just NOT fun.
I think, Latin is really more difficult than English, for example, at least for a beginner. English is a modern language and nearer to our thinking today than Latin or Greek.
That's it .